Ris-Assisted Wireless Communication From an Energy and a Spectral Efficiency Perspective

Abstract

Due to its ability to effectively and intelligently adapt to the propagation environment, reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is considered an enabling technology for future wireless networks. In this paper, within the energy efficiency (EE) and spectral efficiency (SE) context, we conduct a detailed performance analysis and a comparison of a RIS-assisted wireless communication system with two other setups, namely a decode-and-forward (DF) relaying-assisted setup and a basic single-input, single-output (SISO) setup. The simulation results along with the analytical ones reveal that both a correct power modeling and allocation and a correct choice of the number of the RIS reflective elements have a crucial role in the EE-SE trade-off.